Information Literacy Notes

Course Description:

  • Equips students with skills to find, evaluate, and use information effectively.
  • Promotes critical thinking and lifelong learning.
  • Promotes academic success in health education.

Course Objectives:

  • Identify information needs and develop effective search strategies.
  • Evaluate information sources for credibility, relevance, and bias.
  • Use databases, online libraries, and web sources.
  • Apply critical thinking skills to information analysis.
  • Integrate information literacy skills into academic and professional contexts.
  • Recognize ethical issues related to information use and citation.

Course Outline:

  • Topic 1: Introduction to Information Literacy.
    • Overview, information landscape, overload, benefits, and importance.
  • Topic 2: Information Needs and Search Strategies.
    • Identifying needs, developing strategies, using keywords and Boolean operators.
  • Topic 3: Evaluating Information Sources.
    • Criteria for evaluation (credibility, relevance, authority).
    • Evaluating online and print sources.
  • Topic 4: Databases and Online Library Resources.
    • Introduction to databases, searching online catalogs, using e-books and online journals.
  • Topic 5: Critical Thinking and Information Analysis.
    • Critical thinking skills, analyzing information for bias and perspective, evaluating relevance and usefulness.
  • Topic 6: Ethical Issues and Citation.
    • Plagiarism, academic integrity, citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago), copyright, and fair use.
  • Topic 7: Information Literacy in Academic and Professional Contexts.
    • Applying skills in research papers and professional settings, lifelong learning.
  • Topic 8: Artificial Intelligence and Scholarly work.

Assessment Procedures:

  • Assignment & Class Exercise: 20%
  • Interim Assessment: 20%
  • End of Semester Examination: 60%
  • Total: 100%

Information Literacy Overview:

  • Scholarly information should be trusted, accurate, credible, reliable, and current.
  • Decisions depend on information literacy skills.
  • Information literacy is more than reading or using a computer.

Definition of Information Literacy:

  • Ability to know when information is needed, find it, evaluate it, and use it ethically (Bothma et al., 2011).
  • Ability to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively, involving critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills.

Library as a Credible Source:

  • UHAS Library supports teaching, learning, and research.
  • Helps students complete assignments, prepare for exams, and generate new knowledge.

Information Overload:

  • Difficulty in understanding an issue due to too much information.

Terminologies for Information Overload:

  • Information explosion, data deluge, data smog, infobesity, infoxication, information anxiety.

Various Types of Literacy:

  • Cultural, media, network, computer, traditional alphabet, visual, digital, information, and data literacy.

Types of Literacies:

  • Literacy: Ability to read, write, speak, and listen effectively.
  • Cultural literacy: Understanding traditions and history of a culture.
  • Media literacy: Ability to work with technological formats and participate with messages in various formats.
  • Network literacy: Ability to identify, access, and use electronic information.
  • Digital literacy: Ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information on digital platforms.
  • Computer literacy: Competencies in using information and communication technologies.
  • Data literacy: Ability to read, write, and communicate data in context.
  • Visual literacy: Ability to read, write, and create visual images.

Importance of Information Literacy in Health Professions:

  1. Patient Care: Finding and evaluating evidence for high-quality care.
  2. Staying Current: Keeping up with new research and guidelines.
  3. Informed Decision-Making: Making decisions based on evidence.
  4. Critical Thinking: Developing skills for evaluating information.
  5. Collaboration: Communicating effectively with healthcare professionals.

Benefits of Information Literacy Course to Health Professionals:

  1. Improved Patient Care: Providing high-quality care through evidence-based practice.
  2. Increased Confidence: Developing skills to find and evaluate information.
  3. Better Decision-Making: Developing critical thinking skills.
  4. Enhanced Collaboration: Improving communication and teamwork.
  5. Preparation for Licensure Exams: Preparing for exams by finding and evaluating evidence.

Aims of Information Literacy:

  • Developing critical thinkers, problem solvers, and independent lifelong learners.

Key Components of Information Literacy Course for Health Profession Students:

  1. Database Searching: Learning to search databases like PubMed, HINARI, Emerald, or CINAHL.
  2. Information Evaluation: Evaluating the quality of information.
  3. Critical Thinking: Thinking critically about information.
  4. Communication: Communicating effectively with other healthcare professionals.
  5. Collaboration: Collaborating with other healthcare professionals.

Other Components of Information Literacy (ACRL):

  • Know your information need, access information, evaluate information, use information effectively, understand and apply information ethics.

Topic 2: Information Needs and Search Strategies

  • Learning Objectives include the guiding of students to identify their information needs, develop search strategies and apply this strategy in order to achieve maximum relevance..

Learning Outcomes:

  • Conduct searches for information and refine results.
  • Identify key words and use Boolean operators.

Determining Information Needs:

  • You need information when you can't answer a question or solve a problem with what you already know.

Identification of a Research Problem:

  • Determine the nature and extent of information needed and identify any problem that requires research.

Define Your Information Need:

  • Identify the type of information needed and who will use it.

Articulating Your Information Need in Searchable Terms and Language:

  • Problems must be research problems that require answering from various sources based off a question.

Types of Knowledge

  • Tacit knowledge
    • Knowing how through experience and jobs and is usually specific to ones context
  • Explicit knowledge
    • Knowing that and can be codified

Identifying Information Sources

  • Common Information sources include:
    • Books/E-books, Periodicals/Serials, Reference Works, Grey Literature, Other Internet sources.